Looking Back at UTEP Football Players Drafted By NFL

It has been nearly 10 years since a UTEP football player had their name called in the NFL Draft. That is expected to change either tomorrow or Saturday when Aaron Jones is selected. The Miners all-time leading rusher chose to go pro after his junior year and is projected to be drafted between the third and sixth round.

Ken Heineman was the first Miner player ever to be drafted when the NFL's Cleveland Rams selected him in the sixth round in 1940. At that time, the school was known as Texas College of Mines and Metallurgy (TCM). Although the Miners had 13 players drafted by the NFL in the 1940s and 1950s, no decade saw more success for the program the 1960s. A total of 22 players were drafted by teams in either the NFL or AFL, including 17 between 1967 and 1969. Linebacker Fred Carr holds the distinction of the highest draft pick, when the Green Bay Packers took him fifth overall in 1968. He went on to play 10 seasons with the Packers and was a three-time Pro Bowl selection. That same year, teammate George Daney was selected with the 22nd pick in the first round of the NFL/AFL Draft by the Kansas City Chiefs.

Here is the complete list of every Miner drafted in the last 77 years.